| Alexander Pope (1688–1744). Complete Poetical Works. 1903. | | | | Epitaphs | | On Edmund, Duke of Buckingham |
| | Who Died in the Nineteenth Year of His Age, 1735 |
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IF modest Youth, with cool Reflection crown’d, | |
| And ev’ry opening Virtue blooming round, | |
| Could save a Parent’s justest Pride from fate, | |
| Or add one Patriot to a sinking state, | |
| This weeping marble had not ask’d thy tear, | 5 |
| Or sadly told, how many hopes lie here! | |
| The living Virtue now had shone approv’d; | |
| The Senate heard him, and his country lov’d. | |
| Yet softer honours and less noisy fame | |
| Attend the shade of gentle BUCKINGHAM: | 10 |
| In whom a race, for Courage famed and Art, | |
| Ends in the milder merit of the Heart; | |
| And, Chiefs or Sages long to Britain giv’n, | |
| Pays the last tribute of a Saint to Heav’n. | | | |
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